Wikipedia claims that Laurent series cannot in general be multiplied. I am wondering why not? Suppose we have $f(z),g(z)$ analytic in the annulus: $r<|z-a|<R (0\le r<R\le\infty)$, then $$ f(z)=\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty c_n(z-a)^n $$ is the Laurent series of $f(z)$ in the annulus, and $$ g(z)=\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty d_n(z-a)^n $$ is the Laurent series of $g(z)$ in the annulus. We also know that the Laurent series absoltely and uniformly converges to funtions, then why can't we take the convolution of $f(z)$ and $g(z)$ which should be the Laurent series of $f(z)g(z)$ ?
Why can’t we multiply two Laurent series
complex-analysislaurent series
Related Solutions
You can obtain the desired result using absolute convergence and some observations about the annulus of convergence of Laurent series.
If $\{x_n\}_{n \in \mathbb{Z}}$, then let $R_+(\{x_n\}) = ( \limsup_{n \to \infty} \sqrt[n]{|x_n|} )^{-1}$, and $R_-(\{x_n\}) = \limsup_{n \to \infty} \sqrt[n]{|x_{-n}|}$.
Two relevant results (all summations are over $\mathbb{Z}$):
(i) If $\sum_m \sum_n |a_{m,n}| < \infty$, then the summation can be rearranged. In particular, $\sum_m \sum_n a_{m,n} = \sum_k \sum_l a_{l,k-l}$. (Since $\phi(m,n) = (m,m+n)$ is a bijection of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ to $\mathbb{Z}^2$.)
(ii) If $\sum_{n} |x_n| < \infty$, then $R_+(\{x_n\}) \ge 1$. Similarly, $R_-(\{x_n\}) \le 1$.
Let $f(z) = \sum_n f_n (z-z_0)^n$, $g(z) = \sum_n g_n (z-z_0)^n$. Let $R_+ = \min(R_+(\{f_n\}),R_+(\{g_n\}))$, $R_- = \max(R_-(\{f_n\}),R_-(\{g_n\}))$.
Choose $R_-<r < R_+$. Then $\sum_m |f_m| r^m$ and $\sum_n |g_n| r^n$ are absolutely convergent sequences, and so $\sum_m \sum_n |f_m||g_n| r^{m+n} < \infty$. From (i) we have $\sum_m \sum_n |f_m||g_n| r^{m+n} = \sum_k (\sum_l |f_l| |g_{k-l}|) r^k < \infty$.
If we let $c_k = \sum_l f_l g_{k-l}$, this gives $\sum_k |c_k| r^k < \infty$, and so $R_+(\{c_kr^k\}) = \frac{1}{r} R_+(\{c_k \}) \ge 1$, or, in other words, $R_+(\{c_k \}) \ge r$. Since $r<R_+$ was arbitrary, it follows that $R_+(\{c_k \}) \ge R_+$. The same line of argument gives $R_-(\{c_k \}) \le R_-$.
Hence we have $c(z) = f(z)g(z) = \sum_n c_n (z-z_0)^k$ on $R_- < |z-z_0| < R_+$, where $c_k = \sum_l f_l g_{k-l}$.
I'm going to take $z_0=0$ for simplicity. For $\rho_1, \rho_2$ with $r_1 < \rho_1 < \rho_2 < r_2$, and for $z$ with $\rho_1 < |z| < \rho_2$, Cauchy's integral formula applied to the annulus $\{ \rho_1 \leq |w| \leq \rho_2\}$ gives us that
$$f(z)= \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\rho_2} \frac{f(w)}{w-z} \ \mathrm{d}w - \frac{1}{2 \pi i} \int_{|w|=\rho_1} \frac{f(w)}{w-z} \ \mathrm{d}w.$$
In the first integral we can write
$$\frac{f(w)}{w-z} = \sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{z^nf(w)}{w^{n+1}},$$
and for each $z$ with $|z| < \rho_2$ this sum converges aboslutely uniformly on the circle $\{|w|=\rho_2\}$.
[Added in response to comment: there exists a positive real number $M$ such that $|f(w)| \leq M$ on $\{|w|=\rho_2\}$. Then for all $w, z$ with $|w|=\rho_2$ and $|z|<\rho_2$, and all $n \geq 0$, we have
$$\Bigg|\frac{z^nf(w)}{w^{n+1}}\Bigg| \leq \frac{M}{\rho_2} \Bigg(\frac{|z|}{\rho_2}\Bigg)^n.$$
The right-hand side converges (it's a geometric series with ratio $|z|/\rho_2 <1$) so the claimed sum converges absolutely uniformly on the circle by the Weierstrass M-test.]
So the first integral is equal to
$$\sum_{n=0}^\infty z^n \frac{1}{2\pi i} \int_{|w|=\rho_2} \frac{f(w)}{w^{n+1}} \ \mathrm{d}w,$$
and this converges and is valid on the whole of $\{|z| < \rho_2\}$. Letting $\rho_2 \rightarrow r_2$, we see that the positive part of the Laurent series converges on $\{|z| < r_2\}$.
For the negative part, do a similar expansion with $w^n/z^{n+1}$.
Best Answer
If you have two Laurent series, both convergent at least for $a<|z|<b$, then you can form the product series, which then represents the product of the two individual functions (an example is treated here: Products of Laurent Series ). If, however, the two series have no common annulus of convergence you cannot hope for much.
But there is a difference to the convolution multiplication of two power series $\sum_{j\geq0}a_j z^j$ and $\sum_{k\geq0} b_kz^k$: Each individual coefficient $c_r$ of the product series $\sum_{r\geq0}c_r z^r$ can be obtained by a finite number of operations, while with the product of two Laurent series (with infinite ends on both sides) each coefficient of the product series is the sum of an infinite series of complex products.